(Note: Today’s 5×8 is being updated with additional links and resources. Check back. I’ll be posting videos below the fold as they become available. Click the link at the bottom of the page.)

1) THE TSUNAMI TRAIL

Of course, the only story that really matters at the moment is the tsunami that is sweeping across the Pacific and the tremendous earthquake that his Japan overnight. It was the biggest earthquake — 8.9 –on record ever to strike Japan. The graphic above shows the prediction of where the tsunami is hitting (updates here). There are cities in Japan with populations of 70,000 that have reportedly been destroyed.

Live coverage (as this update is written around 10:20) of waves in the Bay area.

Some video from Japan: First, the tsunami overtaking an airport (from Russia Today)

This video from NHK in Japan shows the tsunami sweeping across farmland…

Here’s the current USGS map of earthquakes greater than 4.5 that have been occurred in the last few hours:

Here’s a list of when the tsunami will strike the coastal U.S. locations. And here’s the latest information from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Caitlin told Ky Ryssdal she no longer believes that hard work gets you anywhere in America, anymore.

So they left California and, broke, traveled across the country back to their ancestral land in Maine, writing a book about what they learned: The American Dream is dead, but there’s still some decency:

I mean, I wrote about driving across this country and how beautiful it was, both ways. But also, America reached out to us, and that was what was so moving, is that after that first piece aired on NPR, there were the people who were not nice and who said things that were very hurtful to Dan. I mean, ‘What a wimp,’ ‘You never should have married such a wimp loser guy,’ or something. But people across this country, good people, reached out to us. They offered us homes. Somebody did offer us land. They offered us plane tickets. They offered us their homes to sleep in for the night. They offered us food. Americans are good.

Today’s discussion point: Do you believe that hard work can get you somewhere?

Somewhat related: Strongly recommending a fine read at Idea Peepshow, profiling John Gaterud, who chased a dream to Janesville, Wisconsin.

3) GALLAGHER’S CONDITION

The comedian Gallagher collapsed last night while performing at a roadhouse in Rochester. The Rochester Post Bulletin has the story and images. Gallagher collapsed while lifting the sledge hammer that is part of his signature “Sledge-O-Matic” sketch, the paper reports.

4)RESEARCHING THE BRACKETS

Nate Silver, the stats guru, is beginning the task of tackling the coming NCAA basketball tournament. His installment today looks at the “overachievers,” the teams everybody wants to go all the way, but never do.

5) GEORGIA TO MAINE IN FOUR MINUTES

Before I came to Minnesota — 19 years ago next week — I lived a half mile from the Appalachian Trail in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Occasionally, I’d stop and talk with some of its walkers, as the trail joined a road into a small town, where hikers would pick up packages of supplies mailed to them. Those conversations made me want to hike from Georgia to Maine — or at least a couple of feet of it through Sheffield, Massachusetts — but, alas, it was not meant to be.

These were the plans as of late yesterday afternoon. I’m guessing most of these will be blown out to make way for disaster coverage.

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Afghanistan this week and noted significant gains in the fight against the Taliban. But one critic says the war in Afghanistan is harnessed to a strategy that is bound to fail.

Second hour: Author Wesley Stace is better known to music fans as John Wesley Harding. He joins Midmorning to talk about his new novel and the difference between writing songs and writing novels.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.

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@#2 – People are Jerks when they are anonymous, or even have the remotest sense of anonymity. I did tech support for many years, the same people who would cuss me out over the phone, were some of the nicest people you’d ever meet in person… I’ve a firm belief that people in person are far better people then those same people who have some block of technology between them and the other person.

Heck there might even be some foreign policy lesson to learn there also… the internet makes us look like jerks.

Jim Hart

Hard work can’t hurt, but it’s far from a guarantee of everything. For every story of hard work bringing prosperity, there’s dozens of stories of equally hard work leading to dead ends.

c

@Jim,

In todays working world -prosperity-I think it has a lot to do with who you know and really not much to do with ‘hard work’.